The Last Twelve Months Would've Been Easier
While having lunch with a customer yesterday, a small business owner, the conversation turned to recovering the lost business of the past year or so. It is on the horizon. We can't wait.
The most interesting part of this conversation was about how much had to change within our businesses to weather this storm. Changes to how the business is run. Changes that we never thought we could pull off when things were rolling along. (Good times mask poor performance)
He said, "If I had made the changes I did in 2009, sooner, I would have had enough money in the bank to cruise through the last year. I am so much more prepared now."
Most of these changes were in expenses. Spending we thought was needed. Staffing too many people, many that didn't have the same respect for the health of the business and the concept of honest days work for an honest days pay. The staff that is left are glad to still be working and theywork harder and smarter to prove it. That's not such a bad thing.
We both agreed that we wouldn't want to go through 2009 again, but we are stronger for it. Smarter for it. Our businesses will come through it heathier as long as we don't screw it up. We have gone through some difficult times. They are not over, but the lessons that we have learned and our ability to survive tough times have set us up to be extremely successful as the business comes back. And it will.
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